Sampling Some Northern Italian Culture & History

Waterfront in Italy
[La Citta Vita, CC BY-SA 2.0]

Italy has been home to technological advances and innovative ideas for hundreds of years. From Roman architecture to Italian fashion, Italy continues to grow and prosper despite the natural disasters and intense warfare attempting to set back its cultural progression. Through religious beliefs, cultural norms, archaeology, and architecture northern Italy has continue to prosper into the culturally diverse conundrum it is today. 

The Roman Empire

The Roman mythology that most of us know of today that developed throughout Italy and eventually the Roman Empire had roots based in not only in the Greek mythology that was adapted through colonies in southern Italy, but had bases in Etruscan and other Latin tribes as well. The Roman Empire developed an intricate belief system as it became a religious sponge while it continued to conquer neighboring lands. As regional deities became accepted into mainstream Roman traditions (like the Phoenician Goddess Cybele and the Persian God Mithra) these new gods and goddesses received their own temples and priests.

Venus de Milo
[Chadica, CC BY-2.0]

Tiberius Claudius Niro, Emperor
[Polybert49, CC BY-ND 2.0]

The Roman Empire and the few parts of it that will be later known as Italy adopted another religious tradition during the Imperial system of including emperors as living gods. At first, this system was widely rejected by the people of the Roman Empire, but it eventually inte-grated itself within the empires religious prac-tices which would help religious and other fu-ture leaders when making controversial policies later on.

As Christianity began to develop a foothold in Roman culture, there was a huge clash be-tween the Roman Pantheon believers and the neophyte Christians. As the religious conflict shifted cultural norms of society completely and established a new way of life. There are still reminisces of the Roman Pantheon belief system present in Italian society, but the myths are not nearly as prevalent or seriously considered.

Households and Economic Growth

Culture in Northern Italy is not as agriculturally based as southern Italy. The continued development of technology was adapted into Northern Italy for the growth industrialization. Economy, in turn, altered many aspects of its cultural norm by shifting the focus of importance among idealizations within its citizens.

Within families it became important for children to become hard workers and not focus so much on family. With an emphasis on individual production becoming more prevalent in society not only did families become less centralized, but religious practices became less time consuming. Family still plays a large role in Italian culture, but when comparing northern and southern Italian culture there are obvious differences in the amount of time devotion that are placed on developing a strong family ties and becoming an individual producer within society. Religious rituals such as attending church or mass also become less significant. Many still practice the Catholic traditions or a different Christianity based faith, but no longer place importance on attendance and instead they focus on individually strengthening their faith.

Archaeology and the Ice Man

Replica of Otzi at Naturhistoriches Museum Wein
[Sandstein, CC BY-SA 3.0]

Northern Italy is rich in archaeological dig sites from the intriguing Iceman to the city Luna - these sites provide evidence into the daily lives of Italian ancestors and the down fall of the Roman Empire. Since Italy has been home to different civilizations and nomadic people for so long it has many archaeological sites to study allowing the world to learn about its past.

The Iceman named Otzi was found in the Alps between Northern Italy and Austria. His stable isotopic signature suggests that he way born near a town that is now called Brixen. Otzi died around 5200 years ago, but his remains are perfectly preserved by the glacier he got trapped in, allowing new and interesting information to be revealed about the lifestyle of people during 3350-3300 BCE. His body shows evidence that he was most likely a Neolithic herder or pastoralist. Otzis’ body even displays tattoos including a cross on the inside of his left knee, parallel straight lines arranged in two rows on his back above his kidneys that are each about six inches long, and several parallel lines on his ankles. The end of his life was not peaceful at all, with evidence showing that his last two to three days were spent fighting for his life before he retreated to the mountains and died (Hirst, 2012).

Luna was a city under the Roman Empire's control during the 5th and 6th century. As such it provides strong evidence of Germanic attacks on the Roman Empire during its collapse and shows other factors as to its downfall. It is evident in Luna that the nearby quarry was abandoned, the aqueduct system was breaking down, and communal roads and buildings were no longer in use (Hirst, 2012).

Cave di Prun, Italy
[Hugo franchini, CC BY-SA 3.0]

Christ on the Cross
[Rennett Stowe, CC BY 2.0]

Christianity and Change

As Christianity continued to rise through out Italy and the Roman Empire new architectural styles were developed in order to build churches and later on other important structures. There were Byzantine style churches that were set up using the Greek cross and had a very linear set up. They had a very open set up to allow more people to get in and used typically used large amounts of small to medium sized windows in order to let in an optimum amount of light. Inside the churches were decorated with mosaics and paintings that depicted bible stories such as the Resurrection of Christ and The Garden of Eden. Having art work inside the churches was essential because many people who were illiterate came to worship and the mosaics and paintings made the stories relate more to the masses.

Over time the Gothic style of building became more prevalent in building. Gothic style churches were built to be very tall and used large windows in order to flood the churches with light as if it were the light of heaven. As the Gothic style grew more complex stain glass windows were incorporated into the method. Instead of using large amounts of stone to build the churches and later on other important buildings, the Gothic style used thin columns along with patterns of ribs, pointed arches, and windows. As time went on the Gothic style continued to try and build taller and taller building. In Italy the Gothic style was very unique. The Florence Cathedrals’ exterior is made to look like the Romanesque octagonal baptistery. While the inside uses pointed arches in order to create measured space in its enormous dome like size.

Church of San Rufino [left] and Basilica of Saint Clare [right]
[Randy OHC, CC BY 2.0]

For Further Reading

Hirst, K. Kris. (2012). "The Iceman." About.com Archaeology. About.com Guide, 2012. Accessed November 10, 2012 http://archaeology.about.com/od/iterms/qt/iceman.htm

— (2012). "Luna (Italy)." About.com Archaeology. About.com Guide, 2012. Accessed November 10, 2012 from http://archaeology.about.com/od/lterms/g/luna.htm

Sayre, Henry M. "Chapter 17 The Ancient World: Roman Art." A World of Art. Boston: Prentice Hall, 2012. pp. 431-438. Print. ISBN 987-0-205-88757-6

Schifini D'Andrea, Silvana. "Italian Quality of Life." Social Indicators Research, Vol. 44, No. 1, Studies on the Quality of Life in Italy (May, 1998), pp. 5-39  [Published by: Springer  Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27507548]

Contribution by: Margaret Smith, University of New Mexico, Anthropology & Japanese undergraduate